The Caucus: Declaring Run, Romney Says Obama Failed

Brian Snyder/ReutersMitt Romney announced that he is formally entering the race for the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday.

2:17 p.m. | Updated STRATHAM, N.H. — Declaring America to be broken, Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, on Thursday harshly criticized President Obama and pitched himself as the turnaround specialist the country needs as he formally began his second run for president.

Mr. Romney accused Mr. Obama of failing to live up to the promise of economic recovery he made in his 2008 campaign. And he blamed the president for high unemployment, rising gasoline prices, falling home values and a soaring national debt.

“At the time, we didn’t know what sort of a president he would make,” Mr. Romney said as he made his announcement from a family farm in New Hampshire. “Now, in the third year of his four-year term, we have more than promises and slogans to go by. Barack Obama has failed America.”

The attacks on Mr. Obama promise to be a centerpiece of Mr. Romney’s campaign as he seeks to present himself as the inevitable choice for Republicans eager to reclaim the White House. In his speech on Thursday, he pledged, without hesitance, to repeal the president’s health care reforms.

“We will return responsibility and authority to the states for dozens of government programs – and that begins with a complete repeal of Obamacare,” he said in his speech. “From my first day in office my No. 1 job will be to see that America once again is No. 1 in job creation.”

At the farm, Mr. Romney invited supporters and members of the news media to a cookout with him and his wife, Ann. Under clear but windy skies and with tractors and hay bales as a backdrop, Mr. Romney hoped to send the message that he intended to win New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary.

The choice of the Bittersweet Farm for his announcement is an interesting one for Mr. Romney, who regularly argues for a smaller federal government that spends less. The rolling green hills of the farm were preserved in recent years in part with $1 million in federal money, according to a recent report in Seacoast Online.

A spokesman for Mr. Romney’s campaign told John Harwood of The New York Times: “I don’t think it’s fair to call it a federally subsidized backdrop. It’s a nice farm in New Hampshire, a landmark.”

Mr. Romney has emerged as the front-runner for the Republican nomination after reassembling a powerful fund-raising apparatus and an extensive campaign operation from his 2008 run. But he faces tough questions from conservatives about the health care plan he pushed through as governor.

Democrats are already firing back at his economic argument. An Internet video released Thursday morning by the Democratic National Committee cast Mr. Romney as someone who takes  positions out of convenience, not principle.

Mr. Romney is “going into this campaign with the same fatal flaws that doomed him the first time around,” said Brad Woodhouse, a Democratic National Committee spokesman. “That he’s seen as a wishy-washy, flip-flopping politician who lacks any core convictions or principles and who you simply can’t trust to shoot straight with you.”

Mr. Romney’s path to the presidency must first go through his potential Republican rivals, who are eager to steal the spotlight. Even as he spoke, they were on the move. Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska, criticized Mr. Romney’s Massachusetts health care plan even as her “One Nation” bus tour headed toward the coastal town of Portsmouth, N.H., for a clambake Thursday evening.

“In my opinion, any mandate coming from government is not a good thing, so obviously … there will be more the explanation coming from former Governor Romney on his support for government mandates,” Ms. Palin told reporters in Boston, taking aim at Mr. Romney’s past support for a requirement that individuals in Massachusetts buy health insurance.

“It’s tough for a lot of us independent Americans to accept, because we have great faith in the private sectors and our own families,” Ms. Palin said. “And our own businessmen and women making decisions for ourselves. Not any level of government telling us what to do.”

Asked on Thursday what he thought about Ms. Palin’s arrival in New Hampshire, Mr. Romney said: “I think it’s great. New Hampshire is action central today.” In addition to Ms. Palin, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, was also in New Hampshire on Thursday, speaking to a local Republican committee.

Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former governor of Utah, arrives this weekend for several days in the Granite State. And Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, has said he will compete aggressively in New Hampshire.

Mr. Romney made no mention of his potential rivals. Instead, he painted a picture of a country in crisis. He said that he “believes in America,” but said it is suffering under the current administration.

“We look at our country and we know in our hearts that things aren’t right, and they’re not getting better,” he said.

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For Marion, a Nice Career Despite an Ugly Shot

“I cringe,” said Dennis Scott, the former Orlando Magic shooting legend.

Marion’s wrists flick around chin level, and the ball sails toward the horizon.

“The worst shot I’ve ever seen in my life,” said the shooting guru David Thorpe, dispensing with all diplomacy.

Type the phrase “ugly jump shot” into Google, and the first link is a YouTube video of Marion flinging and shot-putting 3-pointers. The form stays true, and truly hideous, on free throws and practice shots. Scroll down, and a computer-generated Marion is putting up the same unsightly shot in a video-game clip.

“I haven’t seen anything like it,” Charles Barkley says politely, “but it’s just effective.”

As the Dallas Mavericks battle the Miami Heat for the N.B.A. title, the hitches and hiccups in Marion’s supremely unconventional shot have become amplified. But the results have always been much more pleasant than the delivery.

In a dozen N.B.A. seasons, Marion has averaged 16.8 points a game, with a shooting percentage of .485, a .332 rate from 3-point range and an .812 rate at the free-throw line. At 33, he may not be the freakishly athletic Matrix of his Phoenix Suns days, but he remains a skilled scorer from a variety of spots on the court.

But that jump shot. Oh, that jump shot.

“He kind of shoots the ball from his forehead,” said Dan Sparks, who coached Marion for two years at Vincennes University, a junior college in Indiana. “Fundamentally, his jump shot is about as poor as you’re going to get. But he was always successful with it.”

This is one of the great confounding mysteries of modern basketball. Marion violates nearly every precept of proper jump shooting — balance, ball position, arm extension, follow-through. Coaches and purists turn away in horror. Yet the ball keeps finding the net — at least, more than it has a right to.

From 2002-3 to 2006-7, Marion averaged 104 3-pointers a season and nearly 20 points a game for the Suns. He ranks 19th in scoring among active players, with 15,151 points — just behind Chauncey Billups (known as Mr. Big Shot) and not far behind Jason Terry, the Mavericks’ designated shooter.

Marion’s résumé contains 6,186 made shots, or 6,186 moments where someone wondered, “How in the name of James Naismith did that go in?”

To which Marion replies, a bit defensively, “How many people have scored 15,000-plus points in their career?”

This is a touchy area for Marion, a four-time All-Star who has always been reticent to discuss his peculiar form. When the subject was raised this week, he answered with a disarming smile and staccato answers. He turned twitchy, the way Rodney Dangerfield did just before he grabbed his tie knot and declared, “I don’t get no respect.”

“It just goes in,” Marion said. “Hey, what difference does it make?”

To Thorpe, the executive director of Pro Training Center in Clearwater, Fla., it makes all the difference. Thorpe has built a career on fixing errant jumpers and creating jump shots where they did not exist. He has worked with more than 25 N.B.A. players, including the Heat’s Udonis Haslem and the Houston Rockets’ Kevin Martin.

After watching Marion’s pregame routine before Game 1 of the finals, Thorpe summed up his jump shot in two words: “Completely broken.”

The shot starts much lower than it should. Marion’s arms never extend more than halfway on his follow-through. In the moment before the ball is released, Marion’s hands are tucked to his chest, like a Tyrannosaurus rex. Thorpe compared it to a golfer who stops swinging when the club hits the ball.

“He only does 50 percent of the shot,” Thorpe said, adding, “He’s unbelievably talented, though, so he makes it enough to be serviceable as a shooter.”

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